The Playground
 

Kimothy!
 

Olly wanted to take advantage of the grounds while it was still warm. It would be for a while, and it was the perfect time for him to head out to....the playground. Actually he had just been headed outside in general, without any real plan in mind. When he'd gotten out there, though, he made a split second decision and headed toward the playground. He hoped that someone he knew might wander by. Hopefully someone like Ellery or Noelle or Phillip.

The first place Olly went was to the monkey bars. He swung himself from one side to the other a couple of times. To be honest it was starting to hurt his hands. So instead he managed to hoist himself up so he was sitting on top of the monkey bars. There. Now he could pretend he was taller than everyone.

Oh yeah, Vivian just wanted to have capital FUN today. Guess she still had time to play since she didn't have classes for a couple of hours. On top of that, she had already explored most of the castle and yeah, got lost in the process too. But for today, she settled for the playground outside. She skipped and skipped until she reached the grounds. Ahhh, nice weather today. Not too sticky and not too dry either. She mentally commended herself for her great choice of destination today. However, she did kind of wish her sister were here to play with her.

Though Vivi kind of expected herself to be alone out today, she was wrong. Maybe there were other people who wanted to make the most out of such a beautiful weather. Vivi squinted at the boy who was up the monkey bars. Hmm, maybe it looked good up there? She needed to ask. "Hey, there! Hi! Hello!" the blonde waved her hands around for the boy to see, unless he was like... blind or deaf or something. "Is the view up there nice? May I join you?" Bounce bounce bounce.

What was that? A munchkin? Just kidding. Olly knew it was a regular sized human being. Well, fairly regular sized. Maybe a bit small. Probably a first year? Olly had not been paying enough attention to the sorting to remember if she had been part of it that year. There were always too many of them to remember all of them anyway.

She did look smaller than average from Olly's viewpoint. He felt like giant. "Halt!" He raised himself up dramatically and held out a hand. "This is my territory. You must ask permission before entering." He hoped she knew that he was just playing. He didn't want some tiny first year thinking he was actually mean.

HALT? Whaaaat?

Vivi stepped backward and kept squinting at the boy. The sun was really getting into her eyes a little bit, even if it wasn't shining much. But you know... LIGHT hurts. Oh, ohh... permission? Vivi tilted her head. Didn't she ask permission before? Maybe the other boy didn't hear her. But... they seemed to be playing make-believe! She didn't mind!

"I'm sorry, gentle sir!" the eleven year old said with a curtsy. Maybe they were being dramatic? "May I please join you up there?" Was that good enough? Did good ole Sir hear it this time? Could she climb up nowww?

It could be hard to keep up with Juno when she was hellbent on something. Shaking her head, Esme watched as her sister ran towards the swings and launched herself on one. She could easily have followed suit, but she was not in the mood to run right now. Instead her sister would just have to wait for a little bit. Amused, she laughed. "You are so much like dad." It was rather funny at times.

"Having fun?" she asked as she took a seat on the next swing over. The blood was going to rush to Juno's head soon and Esme was enjoying using the swing the way it was meant to be used.

Steadily she rose higher and higher before launching herself off of the swing and into the air.

"WHEEEEEEE!"

Oh good she was playing along. That curtsy was a nice touch too. Olly grinned briefly before regaining his persona. "Come on up madam." Did she need some help? He laid down on top of the monkey bars and looked down through them. It hadn't been too hard for him to climb up, but he'd done it before. If she'd never climbed up on top of monkey bars before she might need some help. He watched just in case.

"May I ask the name of my lovely visitor?" He asked. "I am sir Oliver of Slytherin." He wished he had a costume or something.

Yay! So she finally got permission. "I am honoured!" Vivi curtsied one more time as a sign of respect to the older boy, since they were playing whatever this game was. It was fun, nevertheless! She slowly made her way up and maaaay have nearly slipped on one of those bars but that was okay. If she fell down, she was used to it. She reached the top after two attempts. Mhm, being small and tiny had its disadvantages apparently.

Aawwhh Merlin, did she forget to introduce herself too? "Oh, I apologise for my lack of manners, good sir. My name is Madam Vivian of..." PAUSE. Slytherin? Did he say SLYTHERIN? "Heeeey we're from the same house!" She slipped back to reality for a bit and beamed at the boy. That was soooo cool! Hello, house mate!

Olly stayed silent as he watched her attempts to climb up onto the monkey bars with him. She seemed to have trouble at first, but it didn't take her long to manage it. He smiled encouragingly as she joined him. He decided he liked her, even though he didn't know her yet. Obviously she was pretty cool if she had played along with his little game.

Oooh Slytherin too! "Are you a first year?" He asked, basically forgetting his play persona. Now he was excited to be meeting a new person, and one from his house. He figured she must be a first year, because he would definitely have seen her before if she had been at Hogwarts before. "I'm a third year," he added. Did she hear that. He was a teenager.

The view up here was incredibly splendid! Vivi took a moment to appreciate her surroundings and inhale the fresh air! Ahh yes, the air in the Dungeons was sort of water-y and salty. Suppose the scent came from the Black Lake, since their common room was located down there. "It looks great up here,"" Vivi said to the boy. "Don't you think so, Sir Oliver?" Also, great weather out too.

"Well, obviously I am!" She was tiny, really. It was just so evident. "You're older! And... does that mean WISER too?" She'd have to know stuff from him, since he was more mature than she was. He was a teenage too, because like... third year... thirteen years old. Yep. That also meant Vivi had someone to pester with her endless firstie questions! Yay? Yay!

"I do! You can see for miles." Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. But he could see pretty far up there. Across the grounds for sure. He could see some people down by the lake, some birds flying around the whomping willow. Unfortunately he couldn't see into the Forbidden Forest - the trees were too thick. There would probably be lots of interesting things happening in there.

Wiser? "...Yes." She didn't know him. He could pretend to be wise. It wasn't like she would even know if he was wrong anyway. He probably knew more than her. Was she going to ask him questions, though? He wasn't sure he was prepared for that.

Vivi sort of wiggled a bit to see if she would be comfortable up here. She decided to sit on one of the bars, her short legs dangling on the space between them. She was very light for sure so they wouldn't really break through, right? "I'd stay up here aaaall day, but you know... attending classes was a thing, sadly," she said and pouted a wee bit. "Do you come up here often, Sir Oliver?"

Ah, wiser indeed! The older boy got a beam from the tiny eleven year old. "Well, then. Since I am just a new maiden here in this enormous castle, what has it been like here in this wonderful Kingdom of Hogwarts for the past few years?" Wiser meant more knowledge and experience, right? Besides, he'd been here for the past two years anyway. Vivian was all ears.

She had a point there. This definitely beat going to class. But he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay up there for too long. It was already starting to hurt a little bit. Those metals bars were not exactly the most comfortable thing to sit on. Olly adjusted his position so he was sitting on the edge, allowing his legs to swing. He liked that she kept calling him sir. It was fun. "I've been up here once or twice. I don't usually stick to one location. I like to mix it up and move around." There wasn't one place he liked best. He liked to wander the grounds.

Olly had to think about her question. She wanted a wise answer worthy of a thirteen year old such as himself. Not something like 'you don't get lost as much after you've been here for a while.' "You will love your time here in Kingdom Hogwarts, Lady Vivian. It's so huge you never run out of things to do. There are new discoveries to make every day." Was he sounding smart? "Sometimes it's weird, though. Strange things can happen. Like hags who want to eat kids. But the professors will keep you safe," he added quickly.

Vivi nodded at Sir Oliver answer her question. Well, it was something she would do too. She easily got bored when things were no longer exciting to see. Though this view would be perfect for looking at the Black Lake. She might even see Mr. Barty the Giant Squid wave a tentacle or two. "Where else do you suggest I can visit?" She had to know the good places here since this was going to be her home until she was seventeen. Might as well know a couple of things earlier on, right? "Sorry for the questions." Firstie probs.

Ah, well, Vivi was expecting to have a splendid time her anyway. Her parents definitely had a blast when they were students here. "Oooohh, sounds good!" the first year beamed and stuff. Yay for new discoveries! But... whaaat? Hags? Vivi blinked. "Hags, as in those ugly creepy looking witches hags? Ewwww, what was it doing here?" Hogwarts actually welcomed those stuff here? Not that she would complain much but... really? A dangerous hag, to point it out.

"Everywhere," he said. Was that a good suggestion? Or was it too vague? "I love to swim in the lake and just sit by the shore. The whomping willow is cool but don't try to climb it. Be sure to check out the kitchen, it's close to our common room and you can make whatever you want or ask the house elves for some food. There are some locations that change each year or depending on the professors. What do you like to do?" Where she went to hang out would, of course, depend on what she liked to do.

Oh, she was asking about the hag. That made sense. It certainly wasn't a normal thing. "Just for a bit last year," he reassured her. No hags this year. At least, he hoped she never came back. Where had she gone anyway? "I'm not really sure. I think she was going to teach divination. But then she tried to eat someone and the professors chased her off."

Kerri ♥
 

Well.. that was quite an answer. Pretty sure Vivi had already figured out that everywhere was a great place to be. But you know, she was kinda hoping for a respond that showed the BEST place to be. Kinda like a stress reliever from all the stupid lessons and homework. Merlin, she thought first year was free and easy. "The whomping willow is that big tree that likes to whack people right?" It sounded really cool, not even scary, but she wasn't going to risk her life trying to chase those branches. "I like... eating marshmallows, and skipping around, and... talking? My daddy said there were talking portraits here! Is that true?"

Last year? A hag? Good Merlin at least she was around. "Is there a chance she's coming back THIS term though?" It was just a recent event, to be honest. But she really hoped she didn't have to face the hag anytime soon. She would've... cried. Meh. "So they actually allowed a hag to teach Divination?" Really, though? Crazy staff!

He nodded at her question about the whomping willow. If she had spent any time at all he was sure she had seen it. It was pretty huge. And most other trees didn't move so much. He considered her interests. "There are portraits all over. Some of them like having people to talk to." Others could be grumpy, but maybe they just didn't like him. "There's a big fireplace in the kitchen. You could probably roast marshmallows over that."

"Anything could happen," Olly said ominously, but he grinned so she knew he was mostly kidding. He didn't want to scare her or anything. "She...didn't really teach. There was only the one lesson but then she tried to eat someone and didn't come back to teach any more after that."

Juno continued to swing upside down, grinning from ear to ear. She was definitely her fathers child. She was just like him in basically every way possible. She giggled, "I know." Though she did have more variety in her boots than he did.

Juno could feel the blood slowly rushing to her head, "Always!" She called out with a giggle to her sister. Then the rushing noise in her ears started to get louder, so she knew it was time to properly swing. As
she was getting up she got a little dizzy, but ggigled some more are her sister flew super high off the swing.

"Awesome jump, Essy!" She sat back on the swing and started pumping her legs super hard...she could jump farther.

THERE WAS A PARRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Landon was BOUNCING his way towards the equipment, the cushion charm on the ground making it easier to bounce. He made a beeline for the jungle gym. he need to climb and work up his upper body strength. The girls were not going to be impressed with his whimpy arms he's working with now.

Grabbing onto a bar he pulled his lanky self up, well as best as he could before he had to swing his legs around and pulled himself up. He needed a break, he sat up and took deep breaths as his looked at his arms, did he have MUSCLE yet!?

Hattie was loving being at hogwarts. It was amazing, and she loved the grounds the most. She was going to explore more today and she beamed as she headed down to the playground. She had seen that before, but hadn't really looked at it yet. So today she really wanted to go down there. She loved playgrounds, and she wanted to see how awesome it was.

Ooh. Someone else was there. She looked up at him, as she wandered over to him. "HIII" She murmured a big smile on her face. "Isn't this playground Great?"

"WHOA!" Sudden voices gave him a fright and he swung himself upside down on the bars he was climbing to look at. "Oh, Well, Hello there Stranger!" Not just any stranger but a GIRL stranger!!! Someone Call the papers, this was a big deal!!!! "I think im a fan of it actually." it would definitely raise his muscles up for sure. "trying to gain some muscle." this was only day 1, dont look at his arms!

"Oh merlin's beard! I didn't mean to scare you" but at least he hadn't fallen from the bar because that would have been really bad. "Oh. Hello." She murmured with a smile. "but I'm Hattie. Not a stranger" Or at least she wasn't a stranger now he knew her name. Which was very good indeed. "Oh?" She mused, looking at him. "I hope you get lots of muscle then!"

"It's quite alright.. i think im scared easily to be frank." he shrugged his best shrug he could muster upside down. "You're Hattie.. and I'm Landon... Not London.. that's a city, i'm a boy.. err.. man." yes! he was a Manly man!

Yeah! Lots of muscle! "Me dad says if i do lots of lifts it'll grow in no time. turns out im heavier to lift than i thought." silly poppa never really knew what was going on.

"Oh. That's not good! You need to work on that" Because well being scared wasn't that good. So hopefully he wouldn't get scared all the time. "Oh. I like your name!" It was unusual and she'd not heard it before. It was like her name. Nice and unique.

"Oh. That's good then. I bet you'll look good with muscles" Because well muscles wre good right? "Oh. That's not good!"

"Maybe i should invest in some weights..... they should have a gym here." A gym with WEIGHTS! "Or maybe i can lift small children..." he did have a brother at home, he can just carry him around everywhere. "You can clumb on up here if you'd like... don't let me less than par muscles scare you off."

"How old are you?" Because she wasn't worried about weights and stuff. So maybe he was older than her. "Are you that worried about getting muscles? Because that does seem like a lot of effort" And it was way too much effort for Hattie. "Oh yes yes" She nodded, before she climbed up next to him. "Ooh. The air is thinner up here" She pretended, with a little giggle.

"Just eleven." he nodded as his straight red hair stood up on end from him being upside down and his face turned shades of red. He looked over at her and nodded, "If i start now i'll have them by 13 then i wont have to work so hard." then it'll just be keeping in shape and it wont be so hard. "do the hard work now and get it over with.. then i can have fun later." with his muscles!! Did'n't she see his point here?

SNORT.

Sometimes it was hard for Esme to tell her father and sister apart. Not really, obviously. But their personalities were THAT similar. It was funny how they looked identical but had a lot of differences but she wouldn't have it any other way; she loved her sister more than anyone else in the world.

Giggling, she made her way back to the swing. "Thanks!" Juno had righted herself and was already swinging away. "Okay, let's see if you can beat me then." Because that was clearly what her twin was trying to do now. Taking a seat on the swing, she watched her sister.

Little Miss Glitter Lion, aka Olivia Phillips, had once again found her way out to the grounds on a lovely October afternoon. Shocking? Definitely not. See, it was already getting so stuffy in the castle and Liv CRAVED fresh air. Fresh air and some tree climbing, perhaps. It'd been a while since she'd added to her personal collection of scraps and bruises. The slightly less smol blonde was disappointed in herself.

In fact, she'd been heading that way.....towards her favorite beech tree...when she caught sight of someone so much much important than all the tree climbing in the universe.

Roo.

Rooney in a hat, too. That......that was confusing.

Being as Gryffindor as Olivia was, she made a bee line towards the playground where he was currently swinging at drastic heights. She was watching him in completely AWE, in fact. She'd never dared to go THAT HIGH....but her daring side.....wanted to now. She felt oddly challenged by Roo's display.

And his hat.

Yep, she was just watching him....until he noticed her.

Roooooooooooney was having the best best time swinging and swinging and swinging and EEEEEEEE. As he took his latest forward swing, he belted something out and decided that he needed to be HIGHER for it to sound at it's best. For HIM to sound at his best. He didn't sound it right now and it was generally a sad point if he couldn't sound WONDERFUL.

ESPECIALLY WHEN HE HAD AN AUDIENCE. OH HAY LIV.

Rooney tried to wave, taking one hand off the swing rope, but had to put it back straight away when he wobbled uncertainly and almost not even almost, but he would always say almost for the drama of it all fell from such a height that he may have got a bruise DIED. "MISS OLIIIIiIiiVIIIIAAAAA!!!!!!!!!" Had she seen him seeing her? Would she wave? OH. OH. "LOOK HOW HIGH I AM!" Could she also tell that he was getting higher each time he gave his legs the right flick to drive him upwards?

Could she also tell that his shoe had flown off in the last flick and was maybe heading her way..?

"TIMBERRRRRRRRRRRR"

"Oh, sister...you know I will." Juno called out and giggled as she did so. The only person that could make her laugh was Esme. She pumped her legs harder and harder, and the harder she pumped the higher she got. It was almost unsafe how high Juno was getting. Their mother would definitely be yelling at her, and their dad would be egging her on. She grinned at the thought. She missed them terribly when they were at school, but she loved school.

It was time. She had gotten at the best altitude she could possibly be at to surpass her sister's jump. She gave her Self 3 counts, "1......2...........3!" On three, she flung her self into the air, not only surpassing her sister, but landing so perfectly on her toes you would have thought she was a gymnast.

She grinned hugely and turned to her sister. "Think you can beat that?" She would for sure be in trouble if Esme broke a bone because of her.

Sniff, sniff, sniff!!

Long, pointed noses sniffed the air in search of shiniieeeeessssssssss.

Where were the shinies? The small herd of her-black snifflers nudged and shoved their companions in their hurried scampered search. They crawled, wiggled and made way into the playground filled with kiddies.

Kiddies always had shinies. One Niffler, a bit slimmer and faster than it's fellows, walked up to two females kiddies making quite a bit of noise. The Niffler sniffed at one of the girl's (Esme's) ankles before it's long nose reached up and into the girl's pocket to rummage through it's contents.

SHINIES??????

PFFT.

What a show off.

Esme rolled her eyes in amusement as her sister endeavored to outdo her... and proceeded to do so. "You really ARE dad's daughter." Giggle. It was all good though; actually Esme thought it was funny. "Way to go." Next time she WOULD manage to beat Juno but for now she was happy sitting on the swing and enjoying the nice breeze. Maybe they could have some fun with the monkey bars later.

"Don't be too sure of yourself because you're still going down." Evil grin because this wasn't over yet.

OH.

WHAT WAS THIS???

Esme felt something going at her pockets, and upon looking down she saw that it was a Niffler. "Hello, little guy." Or was it a girl? She had no idea how to tell. Smiling, she bent down to pick the creature up. Hopefully it wouldn't struggle because she wanted to give it a snuggle.

Was the human speaking to them? None of the nifflers noticed. The one sniffing the girls' pocket suddenly bit a hole in it, attempting to procure any gold that might be in there. Shinies. They needed shinies. It was why they had been herded from the forest.

Another niffler pawed at the ground, sticking its nose in the dirt, while the others in the herd began sniffing everything in the area vigorously. They were in full search mode, not interested in being pet or snuggled.

Where were the shiiiiiiiiinies?

Juno was just about to respond to her sister when she turned around to face her, and noticed all the nifflers. She looked like a guppy, her mouth hanging open and her eyes as wide as possible.

She knew this was not a good thing. Especially when one particular niffler started chewing at her sister's pocket. But she didn't want to hurt the animals, so she just stood there staring for a moment, not knowing what to do.

"Es, what do we do?" She called out to her sister calmly but a little fear rising in her voice. She was worried for her sister.

Right. Vivian mentally noted the whomping willow as one of the places she shouldn't go near, unless she wanted a quick reason to end up in the hospital wing. Maybe not now, at least. It seemed dead fun for her to mess with it a liiil bit. "What's your favourite portrait, personally? Like... is there one that is such a big sass or something?" Imagine having a sass battle with a PORTRAIT. Merlin, Vivi could imagine it in her head. Maybe her daddy used to pull on a joke there before. LOL. "I'll consider paying a visit to those places soon, Sir Oliver!"

She did agree with his statement but she sort of squinted at him because HAG reason. But Vivi understood that he was just kidding and so she grinned right back at him. "Oh... wow. Hogwarts sounds like a ridiculously crazy place." PROVEN ALREADY, with facts to support as well. She'd heard so much. Vivi wiggled on her seat.

Okay. This was getting more than a little crazy.

The Niffler had managed to make a hole in her pocket, and Esme tisked as she gently picked it up and set it on the ground near her. That was when she saw its buddies approaching. Right. There was a small herd of Nifflers. This could be quite bad because despite being rather adorable, they could be destructive. Look at what had happened to her pockets. They could tear the grounds apart on their search for shiny things.

Esme turned her attention back to her sister. "I'm going to tell Professor Draper about this." Since he was the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, obviously. "Be careful and stay here until I get back, okay." Juno was more than capable of taking care of herself but nothing had better happen to her. She was slightly worried, but Draper needed to be told about it and neither of them could cast Patronuses since they were only Fourth Years.

With that, she ran off. She'd be back with the Professor as soon as possible.

A few holes had been dug, and the nifflers still hadn't procured their precious shinies. As one of the studentsies ran off, the one of the nifflers sniffed at the remaining girl once more before they took off for the castle.

The search for the shiiiiiiiiinies continued on!

"Ok!" Juno called out to her sister as she ran to go get the professor. Then all of the sudden....the nifflers started running away. It was probably because they couldn't find anything shiny.

Juno watched as the little hoard of creatures scurried off towards the castle. She hoped Esme wasn't to far out of earshot, she called out "ESME THEY ARE LEAVING!" She didn't know if her sister would hear her or not...but she figured even if she didn't hear her...she'd be back soon.

Juno decided to sit back down on a swing and wait until her sister and possibly the professor came back.

Darn those nifflers for ruining their fun sister time!

Oh dear.

Esme shook her head as she headed outside of the office before Professor Draper. "Hopefully that won't happen this time since we spotted them before they could get to the castle." There she was being the ever optimistic Hufflepuff, but it was important to stay calm. Hopefully things would be sorted before they could get inside the castle and cause real damage.

Or not.

Frowning, she looked around the playground. The Nifflers were gone and there were holes in the ground. Yeah, the groundskeeper was not going to be happy, but what could they do? At least Juno was okay. "They didn't try to swarm you, did they?" she asked with concern. Her sister looked to be okay, but still. They went crazy for shiny things.

"Looks like they headed for the castle." Frown.

"Hopefully," he repeated, knowing better than to think that optimistically. Unfortunately despite each Professor's greatest efforts, the students here were still going to act out of stupidity. Meaning that doors would be left open and nifflers would be let in. And if there was any question about it, James already knew who they most likely culprits would be. Some of these kids just didn't think before doing. And despite that trait being common to Gryffindor House, James wouldn't point fingers at them first. 1) He was biased. 2) He was biased.

Reaching the playground didn't take long, but when they did James had to look around the place twice just to be sure that he was right about what he was seeing: aka nothing. Maybe they decided to turn around and head back for the forrest? James knew better than to be optimistic about this matter too.

He too was interested in hearing what Juno had to say. "What exactly happened while Esme came to find me?" Because had the Nifflers been reeled in chasing down a particular student's shinies... They may have a lead. And if not, well then... It was Castle!Professors' problem now. #SorryNotSorry

"I'll send a message out to the other Professors, but it won't do us well to try to hunt them down," like James had said earlier, they were cunning creatures. And they could be anywhere by now. "We'll just have to catch them right when they're spotted." Or something like that.

Honestly, as long as they weren't his nifflers (the ones in the barn), James wasn't all too concerned. They couldn't live in the castle for all that long... They'd return home soon enough. And they weren't any serious harm to the students. Not like they had let dragons loose.

Erin/Dora!
 

Sure, it was winter, but that didn't mean she couldn't go outside on the playground. Just put on a few layers of clothes, cast a warming charm for good measure, and you were good to go. It wasn't as bad as Durmstrang anyway, which was probably also one of the reasons she liked Hogwarts so much.

Rula reached the playground and, pleased to see that the swings weren't all taken, she seated herself in the first one. Not that that many people wanted to swing when it was cold outside. But hopefully someone would stop by! The more the merrier.

Finally after having waited awhile her sister and the professor came back. But unfortunately all the Nifflers had run towards the castle.

Juno crossed her arms, it was still a little chilly out, "No the didn't swarm me. I'm fine." She said to her sister, who was sometimes a worry wart but she was the same way about Esme. She was always worried about her.

She turned to the professor at the point, "Well, after Esme left they continued to dig and sniff around for a few moments, and even sniffed at me before running off towards the castle. I tried to call after you Es, but I figured you were to far away to hear me at that point. So I decided to wait till you both came. I'm sorry professor should I have followed them?" She hoped they weren't in trouble or anything...not that they had done anything wrong.

Anyone who wants him!
 

Torie managed to find his way to the playground and was mumbling about gold as he staggered around. His face was blank as his eyes searched for something shiny that looked like gold. He needed his shiny. A necklace, maybe a ring or bracelet. Anything shiny! Must find gold... he mumbled again as he stumbled forward.

*continues with earlier timeline*
 

The most pressing concern for Esme was whether or not her sister was okay, so it was a huge relief to know that nothing had happened other than the Nifflers digging holes before moving on. Yeah, the groundskeeper really wasn't going to be happy about that but what could they do? Seemed that the most destruction could be done outside since there was dirt everywhere. Stone wasn't exactly the easiest thing to dig into... Obviously.

She nodded as Professor Draper said that he was going to send a Patronus off for the other Professors. "What should we do if we find any?" That seemed like a valid question in Esme's opinion. She had no idea what to do if she came across a small (or large) number of them causing chaos. It would be so much easier of she or Juno could cast Patronuses but it was what it was. It would be harder to get to Professor Draper if he was far away from them at the time.

Juno gave the professor a small smile. He really was a great teacher and was always concerned for their well-being. She also felt good about doing the right thing and telling the professor about the nifflers. It wasn't normal for them to be running around free like that.

Juno looked over to Esme, she didn't think there was anything else they needed. "I don't think so professor. Esme, is there anything else?" She asked her sister.

Right. Do the same thing that they had done before. Sounded good. Esme could do that easily. She nodded her head to show that she understood what Professor Draper was saying. It never hurt to cover all bases and make sure of things. Hopefully the Nifflers would be rounded up before they could cause TOO much damage to Hogwarts since it appeared that they had managed to make their way inside.

Sigh.

Her attention turned to Juno as her sister said that there wasn't anything else that they needed. "I don't think so. Nothing is coming to mind at least." Since she had already asked what to do in case they spotted more... "Thank you, Professor." And now he knew that there were Nifflers on the loose and the other Staff knew as well so they would be at least somewhat prepared for things. Better than nothing, right?

Good. "I'll see if I can put an end to the chaos," he nodded. But in the meantime, "If there's anything else, come find me." He'd be in his office for the most part. Except for right now because he had to go see the groundskeeper about this.

Something wasn't right.

.... But then again... Was anything ever right in this place? Let's be real. The answer is no. Never. And with that he gave the twins another firm nod and turned on his heel to head back from the direction he came. This time, he'd have to make a small detour.

Pet Rock Project- Post 4
 

Pet Space Rock Extra Credit Post 3
 

Space Rock - Post 2
 

"This is the playground, Rubble. I come here whenever I get the chance to. It used to be one of my favorite places to go when I was younger." Hady had Rubble her pet space rock sat in the palm of her hand allowing him complete view of everything around them. Even with the weather being warm and very sunny there wasn't anyone in the playground which was a bit strange really but that didn't bother the girl one bit. "Since no ones here but us we can check out everything. How about the slide first?"

Hadleigh walked towards the slide. Rather then slide down it with him she chose to do something different. "I'll let you slide down on your own but don't worry I'll catch you." Standing at the bottom of the slide she leaned forward and up as far as she could setting Rubble down in the center of the slide. "Alright here you go," counting quietly to three she let him go so that he would slide downwards towards her waiting hand. Catching him she laughed and held him up. "Great job! That was fun, huh?"

With a smile set on her face she headed next for the swings sitting down on one and holding Rubble on her lap. "This is a swing it was one of my favorite things about the playground." Slowly she pushed her feet against the ground so they moved forward and back. "I always felt like I was flying and would try to go as high as I could but I won't be doing that today." Not taking any chances in dropping him at all. Nope nope not gonna happen.

After about five minutes or so maybe longer cause the swing was always fun Hady let the swing slow to a stop. Getting up and carrying Rubble she walked over towards the sandbox area. Sitting down on it's edge she set Rubble right down in the sand. "This is sand. We can build things with it or just play in it," she explained picking up a handful and letting it run through her fingers.

When they were all done playing the snakette rose to her feet picking up her little space rock. "Time for a snack I think, I bet you're hungry too." What?, space rocks must get hungry. Brushing any bits of sand off of Rubble she headed back towards the castle for their next stop.

Noelle